Moving - Need Advice

[Little_Aquarist]

I'm moving at the end of May. I don't want to screw everything up that I've worked for in my tank. What would be the EASIEST way to move it? It's a short distance from where we are and where we're moving to. I've got 11 corals I need to move (7 of them are SPS frags the other 1 is a Hot Lava Chalice)


Anyone have extremely useful advice/tips to make this easier?



-Brooks-

[Poseidon]

If you can, set up a rubbermaid tub at the new place BEFORE the move. Once you have water in it, at the right temp and SG, move the livestock to the tub. Once the livestock is in the tub, you can go back and get the tank and stuff... This will allow you to take your time setting up the tank, and getting everything to the new place. Move as much water as you can, fill up the old system 1/2 way, and then pump all the water from the rubbermaid system into the tank to fill it up, and then transfer the livestock.

It is WAY easier to have a holding tank set up in advance then it is to tear down, move, and then reacclimate everything all in the same day.

[Little_Aquarist]

What if I got half of the current tank water, then put that in the tub and get the temp right, then leave the other half in the tank then just set the tank up and add the water back in?


I don't have to let anything re-cycle do i?

[Parrothead]

Mike has got this down pat, either way you will still go through a mini-cycle, I'd follow Mike's advice. Look at it this way, you do a water change and new aquascape all at the sametime.

Tanks,
Robert

[Poseidon]

Unfortunately I have moved my tank 3 times in the last 4 years, and in my experience having a place to put the livestock ahead of time is BY FAR the best way to go. Here is a picture of the tub I used on the last move:


That is a 70 gallon tub, and all the 5 gallon buckets have my livestock in it.

I was able to get in to my "new" place about 2 weeks before I had to be out of the "old" place, this was a blessing. The livestock move took about 4 hours, then the next day I went back and got all the tank and sump stuff. From there it took a while to fill the tank and sump from the RO unit.

I am sure it can be done differently, and I have had to move tearing the tank down and take out the livestock, and then set the tank back up, and put the livestock back in, all in one day.... This is what I got:

I moved... And I BLEW IT!

There used to be some pictures in that thread, they must have been lost....

[Carissa]

Good advice. I will remember this when I have to move (sometime within the next three months, hopefully). I already had to move the tank once but all I had were six snails and it's a small tank, I just put all the live rock and snails into 5 gallon buckets and filled with water (saved about half the water), reset the tank and dumped it all back in with new water.